Michael's Weblog

Once on the dive boat we were divided into groups of about six people and given the game plan for our first dive and a quick refresher course on hand signals that would be used while under water. The trip out to the islands took about 30 minutes, most of which was filled with our bilingual dive plan. Not long after our talk we saw the only 2 turtles we'd see for the day floating at the surface.

Our first dive consisted of following the northern flowing current on the west side of the Catalina Islands between 40 and 60 feet under the surface. Not long after our descent we went into a small area that could be called a 'shark wash'..sharks go in here and the smaller fish clean them. I was quite excited about this because I had never seen a shark while diving. I was not disappointed. Here we saw several white tip sharks just lounging on the ocean floor mere feet away. Apparently we scared them all away because it sounded like we were the only group to see more than one shark. We saw 5-6 throughout the dive. After leaving the house of the sharks we went further north where we saw two schools of spotted eagle rays off in the distance. After a three minute safety stop at 15 feet we ascended to the surface and were promptly picked up by the boat. Total dive time: 55 minutes

After a bit of rest and refreshments, our second dive took took us close the the island pictured above. This dive was a bit of a let down after the first..though no dive is a bad dive. There didn't seem to be much in the way of life..besides a few small fish and a bit of coral. The only creature worth noting was an octopus. This dive was supposed to be around 40 feet, although we did briefly hit 60 foot. Total dive time: 46 minutes.

I was very happy with the crew of the dive boat. Everything was taken care of for us..they even took our flippers off in the water. For anyone else with the misfortune of seeing Open Water, I was pleased with the safety measures taken to insure everyone made it back to Flamingo. Not only were we in small groups with a dive master, while on the boat everyone had to sign a paper before diving and once again after we finished diving. The final test was making sure we had no leftover shoes when we returned to the beach.

For dinner we ate at Taboo in Langosta, just down the street from the villa. I wasn't thrilled with the menu here because it was mostly seafood and a bit on the expensive side. The restaurant itself was very nice however.